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Champions Hockey League
This article is about the tournament that was launched in the 2014–15 season. For the tournament that was cancelled after the 2008–09 season, see Champions Hockey League (2008–09). Frölunda HC | most_champs = Luleå Hockey (1) Frölunda HC (1) | qualification = | folded = | website = ChampionsHockeyLeague.net | ceo = Martin Baumann | Director = | TV = Europe: various | related_comps = | Founder = IIHF }} The Champions Hockey League is a European ice hockey tournament launched by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which started in the 2014–15 season. Background The IIHF launched a tournament with the same name in 2008 to coincide with the IIHF's 100th anniversary. The tournament's only season was played between 8 October 2008 and 28 January 2009, and was won by the ZSC Lions who got to play in the 2009 Victoria Cup game as a result. The IIHF planned to launch another season, but was ultimately forced to cancel the tournament due to problems with finding sponsors and failure to agree on a format. On 9 December 2013, the IIHF officially announced that they had launched a new tournament with the same name, born out of the European Trophy, starting in the 2014–15 season.New era dawns for Europe 2014–15 season The 2014–15 season's regulation round was played between 21 August and 7 October 2014. 44 clubs from 12 different European countries participated in the season, divided into 11 groups of four teams each. A draw took place in Minsk, Belarus, on 21 May 2014 to determine the groups. Each team played a double round-robin in their group, for a total of 6 games per team. The 11 group winners as well as the top five group runners-up qualified for the playoffs, which began on 4 November and ended with the final on 4 February 2015. The playoffs were as a single-elimination tournament, with all rounds leading to the final played in two-game, home-and-away, total-goal series. The final was a single game. In total, 161 games were played, including the group and playoff stages. 2015–16 season For the 2015–16 season, the tournament has been expanded to 48 teams, divided into 16 groups with three teams in each group. The two first teams in each group advanced to the playoff round of 32. The 48 teams consisted of the 26 founding A-licence clubs, 12 B-licensed clubs from the founding leagues, and 10 C-licensed "Wild card" teams from other leagues. The champions from Norway, Denmark, Slovakia, France and the United Kingdom, like the previous season, received wild card berths. From Slovakia, Norway, France and the United Kingdom, a second team also received a wild card berth. One wild card license was also assigned to IIHF Continental Cup 2015 winner HK Neman Grodno. Teams From the 2015-16 season, 48 clubs from the first-tier leagues of at least ten different European countries will participate. Teams can qualify for the tournament by obtaining either an A, B or C license. * A license: The 26 founding clubs are granted an "A license", provided that they play in the first-tier league of their respective system. * B license: Two teams—the top regular season team and the top playoff team in the previous season without an A license—from each of the founding leagues (Austrian EBEL, Czech Extraliga, Finnish Liiga, German DEL, Swiss NLA and Swedish SHL) will also participate.Qualifikationskriterien für die Champions Hockey League If these top teams are already founding clubs with A licenses, other teams from the league can take the B license spots. The order the B licenses will be handed out is:New clubs join CHL # National champion # Regular season winner # Runner-up, regular season # Play-off finalist # Best placed semifinal loser # Worst placed semifinal loser :If the leagues after that still don't reach their guaranteed number of places (EBEL: 4; DEL, NLA and Extraliga: 5; SHL and Liiga: 6) the third and fourth placed team in the regular season also can be considered. * C license: The rest of the places will go to "wild card" teams, from European first-tier leagues other than the founding ones. The C license teams will be drawn from amongst the champions of the IIHF Continental Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League (United Kingdom), GET-ligaen (Norway), Ligue Magnus (France), Metal Ligaen (Denmark), and Slovak Extraliga (Slovakia). Prize money In the 2014–15 season, 40 teams competed for a grand total of 1.5 million euros. European Trophy The winner of the Competition will receive the “European Trophy”.http://www.championshockeyleague.net/about/about_chl/ Winners *2014–2015: Luleå Hockey *2015–2016: Frölunda HC References See also * European Trophy, a similar tournament played annually since 2006 Category:Champions Hockey League Category:International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments